Day the Sixth Introduction explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Gender and Power

  Licisca's bold speech challenges male authority and traditional views of female chastity, asserting women's agency and knowledge over their own bodies and marriages.

• Wit and Cunning

  Licisca uses sharp wit and rhetorical skill to defend her position and mock Tindaro, while Dioneo's quick judgment demonstrates cunning in resolving the dispute humorously.

• Social Class and Morality

  The quarrel between servants Licisca and Tindaro exposes tensions about morality and social norms, with Licisca's frankness contrasting with idealized expectations of female purity.

Characters to notice

• Licisca

  Licisca is a senior serving-woman who quarrels loudly with Tindaro over the nature of women's virginity at marriage, insisting that no woman she knows went a maid to her husband.

• Dioneo

  Dioneo is called upon by the queen to judge the quarrel between Licisca and Tindaro; he promptly rules in Licisca's favor, calling Tindaro an ass.

• Lauretta

  Lauretta sings a canzonet with Dioneo about Troilus and Cressida during the leisure time before the storytelling.

• Pampinea

  Pampinea is present as one of the ladies in the company, though she does not speak in this excerpt.

• Filostrato

  Filostrato is present as one of the gentlemen in the company, though he does not speak in this excerpt.

• Fiammetta

  Fiammetta is present as one of the ladies in the company, though she does not speak in this excerpt.

Key passages

• “The moon, being now in the middest heaven, had lost its radiance and every part of our world was bright with the new coming light, when, the queen arising and letting call her company, they all with slow step fared forth and rambled over the dewy grass to a little distance from the fair hill, holding various discourse of one thing and another and debating of the more or less goodliness of the stories told, what while they renewed their laughter at the various adventures related therein, till such time as the sun mounting high and beginning to wax hot, it seemed well to them all to turn homeward.”

  At dawn, the queen rose and gathered the company. They walked slowly through the dewy grass, chatting and laughing about the stories they had heard, until the sun grew hot and they decided to return to the palace.

  Describes the morning routine of the storytellers on the sixth day.

• “Madam, this fellow would teach me, forsooth, to know Sicofante’s wife and neither more nor less than as if I had not been familiar with her, would fain give me to believe that, the first night her husband lay with her, Squire Maul made his entry into Black Hill by force and with effusion of blood; and I say that it is not true; nay, he entered there in peace and to the great contentment of those within.”

  Licisca angrily tells the queen that Tindaro is trying to teach her about Sicofante's wife, claiming that the first night of marriage was violent, but she insists it was peaceful and consensual.

  Licisca's bawdy defense of her knowledge about women and marriage.

• “By Christ His faith (and I should know what I say, when I swear thus) I have not a single gossip who went a maid to her husband; and as for the wives, I know full well how many and what tricks they play their husbands; and this blockhead would teach me to know women, as if I had been born yesterday.”

  Licisca swears that none of her female friends were virgins when they married, and she knows all about the tricks wives play on their husbands, mocking Tindaro for thinking he knows better.

  Licisca's bold claim about female sexuality and marital deception.

• “Madam, the judgment is already given, without hearing more of the matter; and I say that Licisca is in the right and opine that it is even as she saith and that Tindaro is an ass.”

  Dioneo declares that the judgment is already decided: Licisca is correct and Tindaro is a fool.

  Dioneo's quick and humorous ruling in favor of Licisca.